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My Reality, Your Reality

No not relativism. Just an update 1.) to apprise the reader of my status, namely, that I did not fall off the face of the earth. and 2.) to disabuse whoever has eyes to see of the unreality of the latest “news” or “reporting” on the status of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate. Just because people say things does not make it true.

First, thanks to all those who have been praying for me. I made it to the end of the semester at the Angelicum still standing. I have one more final, but most of the stress is now behind me. I hope to blog at least a couple of times during the break.

Second, Rorate Caeli has posted a video by one of our former friars, which by all accounts is a fairly nice vocation video for the Institute as it stands now, but it has been posted with a predictable interpretation and broadcasted further by others.

Several clarifications:

At least 90% of the footage was taken by a seminarian who remains in the community and is quite happy to do so. Some of his footage was used for a 2013 vocation video which is was used by the producer of the new video without permission. The parts of the new video that are not in the 2013 vocation video were shot for the vocation video and archived. I have checked all my facts here from the seminarian in question, who watched the video in its entirety. RC says that the “footage was then kept in secret, witness of something no longer tolerable to those in power, unseen until now.” This is simply false, as is evidenced by the video on YouTube.

About half of the seminarians who are in the video are no longer in the Institute, but to them others have been added who have passed through the novitiate. When the seminary closed there were 51 seminarians. Today there are 28. The same pattern is true of the schola that sang in the video. It still exists and the members sing regularly at our liturgy. We continue, for example, to use the Liber Usualis every day for various parts of the liturgy. Please keep in mind that for those who have orchestrated the exodus, with outside from help from willing collaborators like those at RC, this is exactly what they wanted. Seminarians were being contacted clandestinely, and encouraged as well as pressured by both former friars and those still in the Institute to leave. This planned and well-orchestrated effort, unfortunately, was highly successful (and contrary to the explicit will of Pope Francis, BTW).

Everything that is witnessed in the video, with the exception of the celebration of the Extraordinary Form of the liturgy—a temporary restriction contingent on the temporary Commission—and the year long night rising for Matins we still do. The Holy Father told us face to face that his intention was not to permanently forbid its celebration, but solely to see to it that the liturgy was not a source of division within the community. Furthermore, the horarium has not changed, except for the continuous night rising, which was never part of our legislation anyway, and was only introduced in the seminary in November of 2011. (We still rise at night for Matins during Lent—a practice mandated by our ecclesiastically approved Constitutions. Prior to the change in 2011, this had been the practice since 1990 and it remains in force.).

Thus, the quotations in the video from our legislation are norms still in force which we continue to observe.

The statement of RC that there now exists within the Institute “a new atmosphere of doctrinal corruption and moral relaxation, of the disintegration of the religious observance” is gratuitous, offered without evidence because there is none.

This is a fine example of a propaganda piece which says little in terms of facts, but effectively conveys an conclusion necessary to a world-view. It is called: “painting the target around the arrow.” For example, RC claims that the video was shot on the very day the seminary closed, in order to achieve a maximum sympathetic response. But in fact, the friar who shot the material, who was able to identify all the various elements, and who was present when the seminary closed, did not see anything that was shot on the day the seminary closed.

RC writes:

But perhaps our Lady, on her feastday, is offering a vision very different to that which seems to dominate presently in the Church — a vision of the consecrated life which is, as Simeon says of Christ, a sign of contradiction.

Indeed, I couldn’t agree more. May we have the grace to correspond to our vocation. But I don’t think any of the friars, including most who would like to see things the way RC wants to see them, would presume they are the ideal, or that the Church is without many other fine religious communities and holy religious.

After all is said and done, after everyone has had their say and shouted from the rooftops what they speculate might be reality—though they are convinced that their opinion is more than that—there remains only one thing to do, especially for vowed religious: obey the Church. Anything else would be a patent absurdity—a contradiction for sure, but not the sign of contradiction.

I kindly ask Rorate Caeli to link to this post, in the interests of truth, and also out of justice, since the footage does not belong to Rorate Caeli, but has its origin in the Institute and was the work of a friar still present in the community.

The TLM was and still is in danger of becoming a (closed)production, that’s the problem. Jesus didn’t need a show, He requested faith in His sacramental grace. (There weren’t a whole lot of TLMs going on cotside in Auschwitz, etc., and who can imagine the enormity of what those Masses meant?) If we need the joy of the TLM in order to feel holy (in order to act holy), then Mass is about us, not about our Savior.

The fact that the current powers in Rome feel they need to prohibit the Traditional Latin Mass, the mass that has been the treasure of the Church from the very beginning, is all you need to know about where their sympathies are.
This is truly a diabolical disorientation. Think about it seriously…. it is a sign of the devil’s work to prohibit the traditional rite and to push a rite concocted by protestants and to conform to the spirit of the world.

Rod – what is “diabolical disorientation” is the confused belief that individuals judge the Magisterium, and not the other way around. You are a functional Protestant in this matter. Prayerfully consider reading one (or all) of the following: The Pope, the Council, and the Mass by James Likoudis and Kenneth Whitehead (rev. ed.); More Catholic Than the Pope by Patrick Madrid and Peter Vere; The History and Future of the Roman Liturgy by Denis Crouan; Reflections on Radical Catholic Reactionaries by Dave Armstrong; and Vatican II’s Sacrosanctum Concilium. Father Geiger’s website – his articles on this matter – as well as CUF’s website (Catholics United for the Faith and the Adoremus Bulletin would be helpful. Take a long view and time to fully consider these materials…they can be very helpful in bringing one’s view away from disobedience to one of faithful obedience to Magisterial authority – not to a fabricated “traditional Rome” but to the living Magisterium. I will say a prayer for your change of heart and ask you to pray for me as well.

Don’t forget THE REFORM OF THE LITURGY 1948-1975 by Archbishop Annibale Bugnini (c) 1990. That’s another great one that I saw was recommended by Canon Law Professor Edward Peters on his website. It dispels many of the myths, especially in Chapter 20 entitle “Opposition”.

The Traditional Latin Rite has not been prohibited. It has been celebrated in RI weekly for I don’t know how long ( years ). There is one parish that celebrates the rite every Sunday, and another priest who is trying to start another TLM weekly. The only protestants involved in these types of discussions are those who refuse to yield to the rightful authority of the Pope and Magisterium , and in doing so deny that the Holy Spirit has control over the Church. The true treasure of the Church IS the Holy Mass, and whether it is celebrated in the highest Cathedrals or in the sewers underground, in Latin, English or French is irrelevant. The Novus Ordo is the Mass of St. Pope JPII the Great, Mother Theresa, and who knows how many other Christian martyr saints. Christ wants souls in love with Him not incense. God bless you.

Thank you for your constant reporting of the Truth of the FFI situation. It’s a shame that Rorate wants to use your order’s situation as a lightning rod for the Radicals Misrepresenting Traditionalism agenda, and to smear Pope Francis with detraction and calumny. I never trust Rorate’s reporting of the situation. I decided on my blog to post in full the text of this piece to disseminate this true, important information:

Jesus is not wringing His hands in heaven held hostage by the Modernists waiting to be rescued by the Traditionalists. I believe the sin is the same in both courts ~ pride and lack of faith and trust in God to control His Church. The Holy Spirit controls the Church through the hands of the Vicar of Christ and the Magisterium ~ end of discussion. Christ doesn’t need a Savior. We do. Christ doesn’t need to be rescued. We do. Rorate Caeli and ilk have more in common with Martin Luther’s 95 point public thesis posted on Whittenberg Castle Church ( with similar results ) than they realize.

Why would you post something like this? Is it your position that your public attitude and beliefs are compatable with the Gospel proclaimed by Jesus Christ? I can tell you right now that whatever leanings and sympathies I had toward Traditionalism have been, thankfully, completely eradicated this year in watching the whole “FFI Scandal” unfold in the blogosphere. Tradition is beatuful. Traditionalism is ugly, arrogant, elitist and as destructive as any modernist agenda has ever been. To attack, villify and defame a Pope who has given the FFI the greatest gift he could give any Order dedicated so completely to the Blessed Virgin, in re-Consecrating the World to the Blessed Virgin, and to so completely villify and attack him distracting the entire Catholic world from such an extraordinary gift…. is something that reveals the true nature of the hearts involved. The true hearts indeed lost in their own agenda, and in love with their own self-percieved holiness.

FFI Commissioner by the Bishop of Rome, Fr. Fidenzio Volpi, has admitted and was found guilty of defamation and lies on 12 February 2015, exonerating Father Manelli and his family. Since 2013, your Order has been suffering and modified because of lies and defamation. May your Order and all innocents friars and nuns be restored to reflect the Glory of God and His Justice, and all guilty parties be forgiven in the measure of their repentance.

It is not confirmed by any sources at all. Is is all gossip from people who refuse to take personal responsibility for their statements. Why no official statement from a real person who will put their own name to it?

It is now confirmed as you will soon see and this is very public. I suppose the civil courts are now ‘against the pope’ too as you accuse those who do not agree with you. Yes, the truth WILL come out and all those who have defamed your founders will be shown for their true colors… Even those in your order.

I stumbled across this website by accident and don’t know much about the controversy, so I did some research and found the link. How any Catholic could agree with the conduct involved here is beyond me. It seems what was done was quite evil.

Fr. Volpi has published a Letter on Immaculaca.com stating that in a fraternal spirit, he reached a settlement agreement on 12 February 2015 with the opposite party who took up a civil action against him to obtain compensation for the damage which they had allegedly suffered, in order to avoid further proceedings before a Court of Rome. But this agreement is no more valid. Fr. Volpi has instructed his lawyers to prepare a lawsuit for the crime of defamation against him in the press as he deny admitting lies, and he has made known to the members of Fr. Manelli’s family that he will no longer comply with the terms of the above agreement. He concluded with reminding the saying in the Gospel: “NON PREVALEBUNT”, which you will recall is in fact “Et portæ inferi non prævalebunt adversus eam”. The truth is there has been a peaceful agreement but the peace is no more.

Stop lying! Of course its true. Volpi is guilty of diffamazione (art. 595 c. p.): he must pay 20.000 € and realese an apology. CR has a copy of the sententia of the organismo di mediazione forense del Tribunale di Roma.

Volpi, no one else, is guilty of diffamazione (art. 595 c.p.)! Since the beginning he was engaged in a war with the truth. The laywer of the Manellis is the great avv. Davide Perrotta do you think Volpi did stand a chance with his lies?